Sunday, May 25, 2008

The Best School Year Ever

Title: The Best School Year Ever
Author: Barbara Robinson

What it's about: Woodrow Wilson Elementary is a normal grade school except for one thing: the Herdmans go there. The Herdmans are six kids, one in each grade, and they're the rowdiest bunch of troublemakers you could ever imagine. This book chronicles their outrageous and hilarious antics, as related to us by narrator Beth Bradley.

What I thought: This book has a pretty low reading level, meant for grade school kids, but as I was reading this, I was continuously laughing out loud. Beth Bradley, despite being the most marginal narrator since that guy from The Great Gatsby, has style as she spins us the tales of the wild Herdmans in a very colloquial and matter-of-fact way. The Herdmans themselves are hilarious, especially Gladys and Imogene. The brazen way they commit their crimes and the way that they're bad enough that even the adults recognize it just adds to the absurdity of it all. Don't let the intended audience stop you from picking this one up even if you're an adult.

Overall: Great, hilarious book. Totally worth tracking down and reading.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ms. Munchak's 4th grade class is reading "The Best School Year Ever". They will be leaving their opinions of the book on this site as they read. Stay tuned.